As the holiday season approaches, I am reminded of the many Christmas memories that were made at my grandparents home in northern Oklahoma. Very few of those Christmases were white, but they were always fun. Those mornings of waking up as a young child to seeing what “Santa” had left me and the waiting on my family to arrive. There wasn’t a whole lot of us, but I loved to see them all. It was one of the few times during the year we were all together.
Decorating the house was a big thing for the family, at least when I was younger. My aunt and my mother had made cut outs of Santa and his reindeer, a candle, a candy cane, a Christmas tree, and Frosty. These all had lights strung throughout and also the house was lit up with multicolored lights around the porch. I was proud of the way my house looked at Christmas time. Inside, we didn’t go overboard. A tree in the corner in my younger days and some music playing bells and then it got to be just a ceramic tree, which I still have, on top of the television.
Leading up to the big holiday, my grandmother would start cooking and preparing for the meal of the day. She was a type II diabetic, but wouldn’t you know, she could make pies like no other. She usually cooked the turkey and the ham, however, later on my uncle started cooking them in various ways like smoking it or deep frying. She also made these incredible noodles that my cousins and I would darn near fight over. My cousin Jason wanted to take the pot home every year but we wouldn’t let him!. We had the traditional sides of mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, dressing, and amazing rolls. Then the pies rolled out, pumpkin, pecan, and chocolate were the usual suspects. I usually had to have all three. Sitting at the “big kids” table was a privilege, one I never got until after my grandparents past away. Oh well, my cousins were in their 30’s and still sitting with me at the “little kids table.”
Now the gift exchange evolved over the years, when I was younger, I would get up before my grandparents and open my gifts and be playing with the toys I got. As I grew older, I started waiting for the whole family to be there when we did gifts. I enjoyed playing “Santa” and passing out everyone’s gifts. One big tradition in my family was the “Deer boxes.” They were gift boxes with deer on them and you were considered special if you got those. You didn’t dare rip a deer box or Grandma wasn’t happy.
After the gift exchange, we usually did something as a group, usually played a game or went outside and did something more than likely destructive. One year we played Monopoly, where the 11 year old version of my self created a “joy land” out of the “cheap” side of the board. I had hotels on every property and got a lot of profanity used at me whenever someone landed in my area. The game was abruptly ended when Grandma went to do the dishes. My grandmother, God rest her soul, would let gas fly like a leaking blimp while she was doing dishes, so you for sure didn’t sit at the table while Grandma was doing the dishes. When she got up for those, we generally went outside or to the garage. One year, I had gotten some golf clubs at a garage sale and had been practicing hitting golf balls into the field by our house. My mother, my cousins, and me went out and started hitting balls. I had been doing OK, but when it came my turn, for some reason, that was the day that I hit the ball like PGA’er. That ball soared over that field and smacked the roof of the house across the field. My mother immediately yelled “RUN,” followed by some profanity, that was the last year we got golf balls.
Those were fun times and times I will always cherish and remember. Now, we all meet at the casino for steak and seafood. It is a great dinner and no one has to clean up, but it still isn’t quite those holidays of my youth, but the most important thing is that we are spending time as a family. I feel blessed because some people don’t even have the chance to do that.